A couple of years ago I installed the Hugo kit on my window regulators. At the time, I cleaned everything up; but, forgot to grease the white plastic spindle that the bracket attached to the glass rides on. Sure enough, a few days after I get everything back together, the driver's side develops the loud 'pop' going up and down. I knew what the problem was; but, at the time I didn't want to deal with it.
This spring after removing the car from the winter storage compound, the window 'pop' had become quite loud so I figured it was time to address the problem. I did the regulator removal, clean and grease and went to reinstall the regulator. If you follow the Hugo instructions, you tape the window in the up position and remove the regulator in the up position and presumably reinstall the regulator with everything in the up position. Both Hugo and the service manual kind of fall into the 'reinstallation is the reverse of removal' camp. You can probably re attach the regulator to the bottom of the glass in the up position; but, its going to involve a lot of colorful language. I started to do this and after about 3 minutes had the ' flash back' to doing the reinstall when I first installed the Hugo kit.
The trick is to lower the regulator mechanism (obviously requires reconnection of the switch and regulator motor to allow operation) until the bracket that attaches to the glass is about 2 " below the top of the large square opening in the door - enough so that the rear mounting hole in the bracket is accessible. Remove the tape from the glass and carefully lower the glass until the mounting holes line up with the rear hole in the bracket. Tape glass back in this position and screw the rear bolt through the bracket into the mounting holes on the glass. Do this finger tight to allow for adjustment. In front of the larger square opening in the door (about mid way down the opening), you will find a round hole that is about 2" in diameter. Remove the tape from the glass again and carefully lower the regulator and glass until the front mounting hole in the attachment bracket is visible in the center of the hole. I am suspicious that Honda put the hole there expressly for this purpose even though the service manual is silent on it. With a 3" extension on your socket you should be easily able to thread the front bolt into its mounting hole. To stop the bolt from dropping out of your socket and falling down into the door cavity, grab a tiny piece of the goo that Honda uses to affix the plastic door liner and stick this on the top of the bolt. This will keep the bolt in the socket until it is screwed in. When you have the bracket positioned correctly, you can then tighten both bolts. I found that having the 4 bolts that retain the regulator track to the door loose enough to allow a little movement made alignment of everything easier. Doing it this way takes 5 minutes tops, faster if you have somebody to hold and position the glass while you check the bracket position in the door cavity.
If this has been posted before, I apologize for taking up forum space. When I was researching the Hugo kit installation I didn't find any mentioned of the hassle associated with reinstalling the regulator in the fully up position.
If you are doing any work in the door cavity, I suggest you plan for replacement of the plastic door liner. My liner had been butchered pretty badly by a previous owner and I had patched it up; but, this time when I went to remove the liner the plastic had hardened to the point that it was cracking badly and coming off the door in pieces. My car is a 2000 so I expect most cars will have liners that are in equally poor condition after removal. I had some CGSB 6mil poly vapour barrier left over from house renovations which I used to fabricate a new liner including all the openings with their little flaps and I transplanted the pocket for the window motor control from the old liner to my new liner. From experience, I know that the 6 mil CGSB will be more durable than the OEM liner; however, getting the old liner to lay flat (particularly when it has stretched and has large tears in it) so that you can get a good trace for the replacement is very difficult. Plus you are dealing with an old liner that will have that wonderful sealant that never seems to harden and sticks to everything that it even briefly touches which makes positioning the old liner for the trace a joy. Given the major hassle of cutting and fabricating a new liner you may wish to have a new liner on hand; however, they are stupid expensive (about $70 per door from the discounters) for what they are.
This spring after removing the car from the winter storage compound, the window 'pop' had become quite loud so I figured it was time to address the problem. I did the regulator removal, clean and grease and went to reinstall the regulator. If you follow the Hugo instructions, you tape the window in the up position and remove the regulator in the up position and presumably reinstall the regulator with everything in the up position. Both Hugo and the service manual kind of fall into the 'reinstallation is the reverse of removal' camp. You can probably re attach the regulator to the bottom of the glass in the up position; but, its going to involve a lot of colorful language. I started to do this and after about 3 minutes had the ' flash back' to doing the reinstall when I first installed the Hugo kit.
The trick is to lower the regulator mechanism (obviously requires reconnection of the switch and regulator motor to allow operation) until the bracket that attaches to the glass is about 2 " below the top of the large square opening in the door - enough so that the rear mounting hole in the bracket is accessible. Remove the tape from the glass and carefully lower the glass until the mounting holes line up with the rear hole in the bracket. Tape glass back in this position and screw the rear bolt through the bracket into the mounting holes on the glass. Do this finger tight to allow for adjustment. In front of the larger square opening in the door (about mid way down the opening), you will find a round hole that is about 2" in diameter. Remove the tape from the glass again and carefully lower the regulator and glass until the front mounting hole in the attachment bracket is visible in the center of the hole. I am suspicious that Honda put the hole there expressly for this purpose even though the service manual is silent on it. With a 3" extension on your socket you should be easily able to thread the front bolt into its mounting hole. To stop the bolt from dropping out of your socket and falling down into the door cavity, grab a tiny piece of the goo that Honda uses to affix the plastic door liner and stick this on the top of the bolt. This will keep the bolt in the socket until it is screwed in. When you have the bracket positioned correctly, you can then tighten both bolts. I found that having the 4 bolts that retain the regulator track to the door loose enough to allow a little movement made alignment of everything easier. Doing it this way takes 5 minutes tops, faster if you have somebody to hold and position the glass while you check the bracket position in the door cavity.
If this has been posted before, I apologize for taking up forum space. When I was researching the Hugo kit installation I didn't find any mentioned of the hassle associated with reinstalling the regulator in the fully up position.
If you are doing any work in the door cavity, I suggest you plan for replacement of the plastic door liner. My liner had been butchered pretty badly by a previous owner and I had patched it up; but, this time when I went to remove the liner the plastic had hardened to the point that it was cracking badly and coming off the door in pieces. My car is a 2000 so I expect most cars will have liners that are in equally poor condition after removal. I had some CGSB 6mil poly vapour barrier left over from house renovations which I used to fabricate a new liner including all the openings with their little flaps and I transplanted the pocket for the window motor control from the old liner to my new liner. From experience, I know that the 6 mil CGSB will be more durable than the OEM liner; however, getting the old liner to lay flat (particularly when it has stretched and has large tears in it) so that you can get a good trace for the replacement is very difficult. Plus you are dealing with an old liner that will have that wonderful sealant that never seems to harden and sticks to everything that it even briefly touches which makes positioning the old liner for the trace a joy. Given the major hassle of cutting and fabricating a new liner you may wish to have a new liner on hand; however, they are stupid expensive (about $70 per door from the discounters) for what they are.
